After polishing off a gourmet chocolate cupcake, Lea Van Poelvoorde downed a shot of Grand Marnier in three quick sips.

“I have one every year,” said Van Poelvoorde.

But one shot is enough. Clean living and healthy eating—lots of produce and a little meat---are her secrets to surviving 100 years. It’s a birthday she celebrated this month at a Cape Coral Salvation Army thrift store, where her loyalty has earned her VIP status.

“Am I the only one to eat something?” asked Van Poelvoorde, nudging her family, the Salvation Army employees who organized the party, and her friends who brought the cognac, to partake in cupcakes.

Thrift-shopping is a weekly routine for Van Poelvoorde, who lives in Cape Coral with her son and daughter-in-law. Before her bash began, she selected a $4 cat-shaped cookie jar and a $40 cabinet. She spends more to ship the clothes and gifts she buys for her 15 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren than the cost.

“I know a bargain when I see it.”

Her thriftiness is rooted in her history. She has told her five children, who now range from about 80 to 66 years old, stories of hunger during World War II. People used straw to bulk bread loaves and kept watch over family cats in danger of becoming meals for starving neighbors, she told them.

She survived that time by trading clothes for grain in her native Belgium, which was occupied by the Germans from 1940 to 1944. She and her husband formed part of the burgeoning resistance movement. Her husband, Andre, refused to fight for the Germans. They kept clothes for resistance fighters in their home.

One day, a cousin sought by the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, arrived to seek refuge in their home near the French border. He was part of an underground movement and sabotaged trains. She introduced her cousin to her children with a fake name, which she has since forgotten, but she was never afraid.

“We learned what was of value and not of value,” she said.

Around 1953, her husband and their five children moved to Detroit after his flag-exporting business dried up. He died from stomach cancer more than a half-century ago. She didn’t want to clean homes and couldn’t find a job that paid well and challenged her, so she enrolled in nursing school.

She worked as an intensive care nurse. One of her pet peeves was seeing how much food was wasted in the hospital cafeteria as she never forgot the hunger experienced during World War II.

Several years ago, she moved to Cape Coral full-time to live with her son, Rene, and his wife, Amy, who admires her mother-in-law’s pluckiness in the face of war and the death of her husband. Lea’s memories of their love are so fond that she never sought another partner. Even in her books, which she downloads onto a tablet, she shuns romance. She prefers histories or mysteries.

She shares her wisdom with the women in her life.

“Watch how your boyfriend treats their mother because that’s how they’ll treat you,” Amy Van Poelvoorde has heard her tell young women.

Van Poelvoorde also credits her genes for longevity. Three of her sisters died last year, but Van Poelvoorde doesn’t fear death.

“I know there is a time for coming and going.”

Her Catholic faith has helped pulled her through adversity.

“I can be down for one day, but not long,” she said. “You’re on your own, and you can’t give up.”

About this report

A quarter of the population in Southwest Florida is 65 years and older. “The Wisdom Project” is a monthly feature in The News-Press highlighting the stories of people thriving in the later stages of life. They have wisdom to share. To nominate someone you know, email jzeitlin@news-press.com.